by Al Sousa (site owner)
Now lets move on to another player type, Mr. Rock.
Mr. Fun is a typical loose player that plays poker for fun. He likes to play a lot of hands and only raises the best ones. Overall he is a losing player.
Mr. Rock is a very tight player that plays few hands. He rarely bluffs and only bets big when he has a strong hand. Overall he is a marginal winning player.
Mr. Nutty is a very crazy player. He is rich and does care about the money he loses. He raises for no reason, he plays many hands, he likes to bluff. He can go on streaks where he wins a lot of money or loses a lot of money. Overall he's a big losing player. |
Hand #2: Mr. Rock limps into the pot from early position casusally. It is folded to you on the middle position 2 and your cards are K J. You raise, the blinds fold and only Mr. Rock calls you. The flop comes down J 6 2. Mr. Fun checks to you what should you do?
Mr. Rock is a very tight player. He is not tricky, he is not a bluffer. He players his hands pretty straight forward only raising with the nuts.
You bet 2/3 the pot, Mr. Rock thinks for a second and calls. Now why here would you bet 2/3 pot? The board is very dry and we know Mr. Rock is tight. Limping and calling he probably has any pair or maybe a hand like AJs. So we bet 2/3 to encourage a smaller pair to call and keep the pot smaller in case Mr. Rock is slowplaying a hand like 66.
The turn comes J 6 2 T. Mr. Rock thinks and bets out 3/4 pot. What should you do?
Mr. Rock usually doesn't bet it unless he has something big. but we are not quite ready to fold. Probably the best play here is to call and see what he does. This keeps the pot small since you have a small hand and gives you pot control.
On the river comes a meaningless two. J 6 2 T 2 . Mr. Rock bets almost the pot. What should you do?
If this was a loose wild crazy opponent you might look him up. But this is Mr. Rock, a player who does not bluff and knows the game decently that he knows how to bet. His weakness is he plays too tight. So why would he bet the turn and river when a two came off? Most likely explaination is that he flopped a set, slowplayed it, then got scared when he saw the T come out and decided to protect his hand. On the river his set became a boat and he is betting it for value realizing either you have top pair, an overpair, or a missed draw. Mr. Rock would not bet top pair like this. He only bets and raises the nuts or close to it.
You call anyways thinking "maybe he's bluffing me" he showsand calls with his 66 for a full house and takes the pot.
A person who plays this tight usually does not lose much money nor win much money. It is possible to bluff him off a hand more than anyone but when he bets or raises you better have a powerhouse to play with him.
There are some players who look like Mr. Rock but are deceptively not. The difference is they can't be bluffed and usually are not as well read as Mr. Rock. They call down too often because they don't want to be bluffed off their hand. They limp a lot of hands they should raised because they don't want to risk a lot of money. These are called weak players. Some are looser than others but they all have one thing in common, you can't bluff them.
What if Mr. Rock Checked on the river? In this situation you have to be careful and knowing your opponent's tendencies help. Try and think about why Mr. Rock would bet the turn and check the river. Would he check raise a boat on the river? Would he try and bluff you off your hand on the turn and now checked the river because he knew it didn't work. Is he on tilt? Would he bet AJ on the turn to protect top pair? Would he call if you had him beat? All these things need to be considered and if most point toward he either has you crushed or won't call a bet... then don't bet and showdown the hand by checking.
Next Article: Hand Example #3
Previous Article: Post Flop Play |
